A Lovely Mishap
by Pisces146
Summary: In retaliation for Malfoy's cruelty and Ron's idiocy, the twins do something to help Hermione with the one thing she didn't expect them to help in-her love life. DMXHGXRW Set in HBP, rated T to be safe


With the end of Winter Holiday, everyone returned to the monotony of everyday classes. This was fortunately alleviated quickly by a visit from a favored pair of pranksters that happened to be twins.

"Fred? George? What are you guys doing here?" asked Harry Potter, resident Hero Extrordinaire, as he walked into the Entrance Hall on the way to lunch.

"Harrykins! Are you unhappy to see your favorite twins?" exclaimed the twin on the right.

"How can that be? You know how we love you so!" exclaimed the other as the twins bear-hugged Harry between them. Harry chuckled as he managed to squirm out of the hug.

"It's great to see you guys, but I wasn't expecting you to be here at Hogwarts. Ron and Ginny haven't mentioned you guys visiting."

"Ickle Ronnie and Gin-Gin don't know we were coming," one twin replied.

"Truth is we are scoping out a new store in Hogsmede," added the other.

"More like contemplating, because the store could hit a serious dip during the summer when there are no students around," said the first twin, giving his brother a piercing look.

"We're still deciding, but we wouldn't mind a bit of your input O Silent Partner," whispered the other.

"I'm sure whatever you guys decide will be fine," replied Harry with a grin. Harry spotted Hermione walking down the main staircase, books in hand and waved her over. As she walked towards the trio, she bumped into a tall, blonde Slytherin.

Draco Malfoy looked down at the petite brunette and sneered, "Watch where you're going mudblood. I can't have you touching me and sullying my robes." He smirked and leaned forward, adding, "You must be distracted since the Weasel found a new plaything. How sad it must be to have the one guy to give you any attention ditch you for someone prettier." He walked off with his bodyguards, Crabbe and Goyle, snickering behind him.

Hermione froze where she was for a few seconds, clearly in a daze. Harry felt upset and mad for his best friend. He knew how upset she was that Ron started dating Lavendar a couple of months ago. Her confession on the night of the Quidditch match, while startling, wasn't entirely surprising. At that point it seemed like their relationship was finally moving forward, until Lavendar kissed Ron. Ron, being the hormonal idiot that he was, ended up making a u-turn and just left 'relationship-with-hermione' city completely. This left their relationship strained at best and himself in the middle, unable to talk to his other best friend as often as he liked because he just couldn't leave Hermione by herself. He sighed and turned to the twins, seeing the confusion on their faces. Harry motioned that he would explain later as Hermione made it over. She greeted the trio and the foursome walked into the Great Hall to grab breakfast.

Hermione ate quickly and murmured a goodbye to the group after mumbling that she needed to check something in the library. Despite the obvious lie, he let her go and filled the twins in after she left the hall.

"So our little brother . . ." started one twin.

" . . .has managed to do something . . ." added the other.

" . . . completely stupid, again," finished the first.

"Pretty much," sighed Harry. "She had gotten better about this since Winter Hols started, but I guess Malfoy reminded her, the git. It's tough seeing the person you like with someone else." He thought of Ginny and Dean, seeing them hold hands, sitting next to each other in the Great Hall, kissing in the Common Room.

"Like you . . ." said one twin, smirking.

" . . . with Chang, right?" finished the other, teasing grin in place. The emerald-eyed boy rolled his eyes.

"I was sure that Ron would finally confess." Harry shook his head, looking towards the doors and noticed Ron and Lavender coming into the Great Hall. He quickly changed the subject. After some pleasant conversation and Ron shoveling his food, the group split with the Twins heading back out to Hogsmeade after saying hello to Ginny and the threesome going to class.

* * *

><p>After checking out a couple of vacant shops with a real estate witch, the twins apparated back to Diagon Alley. They checked in with the girl, Albany, working the cash register to see how the shop held up in their absence. Fred took stock of the shelves and replaced a few missing items while George checked the potions, making the necessary adjustments. Satisfied with the way things were for the moment, they moved into the office just off the lab to discuss the vacant shops and the merit of opening up a new branch. The conversation quickly turned to Hermione and Ron.<p>

"You would think Ron would know a bit better by now," said Fred as he played with a pygmy puff.

"Maybe we should get him that book Bill was telling Charlie about," replied George as he propped his feet up on the desk.

"Perhaps," stated George thoughtfully, as he watched the pygmy scuttle over his fingers. "It could only help him."

Fred turned his head toward his twin and said with concern, "Harry said Hermione back slided after what Malfoy said, like she 'fell off the broomstick' after therapy."

"Malfoy is a git," George replied succintly, the pygmy fluffing it's hair out. Fred stared at the pink pygmy puff with a furrowed brow, until a light sparked in his eye. He took his feet off his desk and leaned forward across the wooden surface, his forearms supporting the weight.

"Something he might need to be reminded of, Twin O' Mine." Fred said this with a gleam in his eye that came only when he was planning something devious. George looked up and smirked.

"Perhaps you are right, my dear twin, perhaps you are right."

* * *

><p>There were three instances when the Weasley twins planned a prank. Most often, when the twins normally pranked someone, it was for fun, a few chuckles and everyone would move on. These were general pranks that ranged from color changing to transfiguration and were aimed at a larger group of people. Sometimes they pranked someone for a grievous wrong that person committed against them. There pranks tended to be a bit more memorable because they were a bit more personal. Then there are the times they pranked for someone else. These were the most memorable. Two examples being Dudley's ton weighing tongue and the havoc they rose against Umbridge last year. At this moment, the twins were pranking Malfoy for Hermione's sake. They contemplated pranking Ron as well, but decided that the prank on Malfoy should just ultimately force Ron's hand.<p>

"I don't know Gred. The effectiveness of this prank is based on how Hermione will react to the situation. I don't know if she will behave the way we want her to." He added a fine powder to the potion they were working on in their lab.

"We know Hermione well enough to know that she is a compassionate person. As long as Malfoy doesn't bug her too much, it should be fine." He began to stir 14 times counter-clockwise after stirring twice clockwise. He double-checked the book and the ingredients on the table. "You need to get another bottle of dried honeysuckle. I don't think that will be enough"

One twin moved to the cabinet containing potion ingredients and grabbed a jar. He returned to the table and started to prepare the additional honeysuckle. After seven repetitions of two clockwise and 14 counter-clockwise, he added more powder. He was about to add three drops of rose oil when there was a knock on the door. George put the stopper down and opened the door with the wave of his wand. It was Albany at the door.

"Fred, George, your mother is here to see you. She brought lunch." She looked on expectantly. Fred added the rose oil and looked up.

"Alright Albany. We'll be there soon," Fred replied. One of the stirrers rolled across the table and fell to the floor. As Fred bent over to retrieve the stirrer off the floor, George added another three drops of rose oil, unaware that his brother already added it distracted by Albany's announcement. These two were lucky that twice the amount of rose oil didn't result in a volatile potion. That would have resulted in a month's ruined research now sitting on the surrounding tables. However, this doesn't mean that the extra rose oil did absolutely nothing. Rose oil in this particular potion has a direct relation in how _long_ the potion lasted. Double the amount, quadruple the time. Oh well, our favorite red-headed twins can't do something about this now. The pair finished the potion, letting it stew for the requisite two weeks before the next step and left the lab to greet their mother, unaware of just _how much_ havoc they were about to cause. All those two could think about was the wonderful lunch their mother was bound to have brought them.

* * *

><p>Hermione was not happy. That isn't to say she was never happy, but, at the moment, she was unhappy . . . and frustrated. Seeing Ron. the way he is now, depressed her. She thought that their relationship was finally getting to the point where they could confess their feelings. Ron ignoring all of that was frustrating. <em><strong>BEEP BEEP BEEP.<strong>_ She turned her alarm off and continued to stare at the canopy of her four-poster bed. Sighing, she got up and got ready for classes. The rest of the girls were up fixing their hair as she left for the Great Hall, frowning at Lavendar's incessant chatter about Ron as she curled her hair. She found Harry in the Common Room waiting for her as he leafed through his Transfiguration book, clearly looking for something.

"Good morning Harry," she greeted as she finally managed to zip her clearly full bag up.

"Morning Hermione," Harry replied with a smile. "Let's head to breakfast. There was something I didn't get in McGonagall's lecture."

"Sure," said Hermione as she watched Harry shoulder his bookbag. They left for the Great Hall, Hermione answering Harry's question along the pair noticed the twins were back, eating breakfast and chatting with Ginny.

"Good morning Fred, George. Good morning Ginny," said Hermione. Harry echoed her greeting and they slid onto the bench pulling a few platters closer to serve themselves.

"Are you two here to look at more shops?" asked Harry after he swallowed a bite of bacon.

"There was a couple that we didn't have time to see last time. The shop is still relatively new, so we didn't want to leave Albany by herself for too long," said the twin on the right, drinking some orange juice.

"I thought you two haven't decided whether or not to open a second store," said Hermione, looking up from her plate of food.

"The shops here are part of the decision for us. We want the perfect store to open the second branch," replied the twin on the left. Conversation continued on this vein, Ron eventually joining them with Lavendar attatched to his arm, much to her displeasure. Suddenly, the group started to hear voices above the usual chattering of the Great Hall. The voices were slowly growing in volume, and while the words were still undiscernable, the tone clearly conveyed a feeling of anger. These voices quickly got to a point that they could hear them.

"I DON'T CARE IF THAT IS HOW YOU FEEL, YOU ARE NOT TO TALK ABOUT HER LIKE THAT IN MY PRESENCE PANSY! SHE IS THE MOST AMAZING PERSON TO HAVE GRACED THIS SCHOOL, LET ALONE THE PLANET!"

"DRACO! HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT! SHE IS FILTH AND YOU KNOW IT!"

"NO, SHE'S NOT! IF ANYONE HERE IS PATHETIC AND DISGUSTING, IT'S YOU!" Unbelievably, Draco Malfoy stormed out of the Great Hall, clearly unaware of the scene he has just made.

"Woah, what happened? Parkinson has never argued with Malfoy. Well, more like Malfoy has never argued with Parkinson. She is normally screeching after him when she's caught him snogging a girl. He just brushes her off," said Harry, clearly awed at the scene he and the rest of the hall witnessed.

"Who cares? Bloody funny though," replied Ron, as he shoveled more food in his mouth.

"Language Ron!" snapped Hermione and Ginny. The group noticed the twins were chuckling.

"What's so funny guys?" asked Harry. The twins shared an amused glance before responding.

"Don't know if you noticed Harrykins . . ."

". . . but it sounds like . . ."

". . . Draco there has actually . . ."

". . . fallen in _love_."

"WHAT!" exclaimed the rest of the group as they dropped or spit their breakfast. The twins just looked on, amused.

"Just pay attention to what they said kiddies," replied the twins in unison.

"We've got things to do . . ."

" . . . people to see . . ."

". . . chaos to cause. Bye!" The twins left the shocked group, chuckling on their way out. Ginny was the one to break the silence.

"It does kind of sound like it," Ginny said thoughtfully as she tapped her fork on her plate.

"He could be talking about his mother," said Ron as he started to eat again.

"I don't think so Ron. I doubt Parkinson would call Malfoy's mother 'disgusting and pathetic'. It would upset her future mother-in-law," replied Harry.

"Harry's right. The social ramifications of that sentence would be disasterous for her. If Malfoy has fallen in love, it has to be with someone that would be considered 'beneath' him," said Hermione, frowning. That entire exchange didn't make sense to her, not only in content but the manner in which it was spoken.

"It's strange. Malfoy doesn't yell. He threatens, whines, and inflates his ego with a normal level of sound. I don't think I've heard him yell, outside of being scared out of his mind," said Ginny, vocalizing Hermione's thoughts.

"This girl has got to be important then," shrugged Harry. The group returned to their breakfast, conversation slowly moving on. However, Hermione continued to ponder on the strange encounter. That conversation suggested that Malfoy was in love with someone who wasn't a pureblood, at least in _his_ sense. Which girl could have possibly caught his eye?

* * *

><p>AN: Thanks for reading the first chapter to my very first fic. I know the premise isn't exactly compelling, but I figured something fun would be nice to ease my way in to writing fanfiction. I like the concept of DM/HG fics as a writing tool because it adds a few other dimensions you can only get when you try to put together two people on opposite sides of a war. I am, however, ultimately a fan of the canon pairings. This means I haven't decided whether I want a RW/HG or DM/HG. We'll just have to see where this story takes me. Thanks for taking the time to read this!

A/N 2: I do not own Harry Potter.


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